the multiple role expectations and commitmentsas an employee, mother, wife, daughter-in-law, and...

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The Multiple Role Expectations and Commitments

of Korean-American Women

By

Taihyun Kim

A Research Paper

Submitted in partial Fulfillment of the

Requirements for the Master of Science Degree

With a Major in

Guidance and Counseling

Approved: 2 Semester Credits

Dr. Karj Zimmerman Investi tion Advisor

The Graduate College University of Wisconsin-Stout

May, 2001

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The Graduate College University of Wisconsin-Stout Menomonie, Wisconsin 54751

Abstract

Kim Taihyun ____________________TK___ (Writer) (Last Name) (First) (Initial) The Multiple Role Expectations and Commitments of Korean - American (Title) Women Guidance and Counseling, Dr. Karen Zimmerman_____5/2001___ _73__ (Graduate Major) (Research Advisor) (Month/Year) (No. of Page) American Psychological Association ( A P A ) Publication Manual (Name of Style Manual Used in this Study) Korean-American women face multiple roles to accomplish in the United States

as an employee, mother, wife, daughter-in-law, and immigrant. Those multiple

roles might give them more rewards through role integration or might be a cause

stress. This research assessed Korean-American women's perception of role

rewards and expectation of role commitments. The purpose of this research was to

determine how they feel about their multiple roles and what was the most

favorable role among five areas, and how to perceive roles depending on age,

length of residence and employment status. The researcher surveyed 80 Korean-

American women from 5 states. The instrument was revised from the Life Role

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Salience Scales (Amatea et al., 1986). The researcher developed four subscales

and added to instrument. 50 each item and 10 subscales were computed both

mean score and standard deviation at UW-Stout Computer Center. Cronbach's

alpha reliability coefficient was used to determine reliability. A t-test also used to

data analysis. Parental role was the most favorable among the five roles. Older

age group expected more commits to their parental and marital role than younger

age group. 15 years and more residence group showed more active on parental

and immigrant role commitments. Also, they perceived more rewards on

immigrant role.

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Acknowledgements

I have done this research project with support and encouragement from

many people. First of all, I deeply give my thanks to the Korean-American

women who participated to my research. With their cooperation I successfully

finished my project. My cousin, uncle, and friends who helped with data

collection from different states also are given my appreciation. Dr. Karen

Zimmerman, my research advisor, she gave me directions and advice whenever I

had hard time with my project. I truly appreciate to her guidance and mentoring.

My mother in my country, Korea, always encouraged me with unconditional love

and care. Thank you mother. In addition, this year I could take a step more close

to God. Thank you so much God to allow me to study in this country and finish

this project. I will live in your will

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Abstract . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Table of Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

List of Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Chapter I Instruction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

State of Problem. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12

Definition of Terms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Chapter II Review of Literature. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15

Influence of Being An Immigrant. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Occupational Role. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Family Roles: Wife, Mother, and Daughter-in-law. . . . . . .26

Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Chapter III Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31

Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Participants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Instrument . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33

Data Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Chapter IV Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37

Demographic Characteristics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

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Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .43

Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .55

Chapter V Summary, Conclusions, and Recommendations. . . . . . . . . 58

Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .58

Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .60

Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .62

References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .64

Appendix A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .69

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LIST of TABLES

Table 1. Age Range . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Table 2. Marital Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Table 3. Length of Residence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Table 4. Living Situation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40

Table 5. Employment Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Table 6. Number of Children . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .41

Table 7. Rewards and Commitments of Each Subscale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44

Table 8. Occupational Role Rewards and Commitments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Table 9. Parental Role Rewards and Commitments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Table 10. Marital Role Rewards and Commitments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .47

Table I 1. Daughter-in-Law Role Rewards and Commitments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Table 12. Immigrant Role Rewards and Commitments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .49

Table 13. Cronbach's Alpha Reliability Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Table 14. Age Difference and Role Rewards and Role Commitments . . . . . . . . 51

Table 15. Length of Residence and Role Rewards and Role Commitments . . . . 53

Table 16. Employment Status and Role Rewards and Role Commitments . . . . . 54

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Chapter I

Introduction

Since the immigration law abolished the quota system in 1965, more than

600,000 Koreans have moved to the United States by 1990 (Kuo & Tsai, 1984).

Korean immigrants are a fast growing population. They are estimated to reach

approximately 1.3 million in 2000, and rank fourth in number of immigrants

among Asian minority groups following the Philippines, China, and Vietnam

(Shin & Shin, 1999).

Like the other ethnic minority groups, Korean immigrants face challenges

about the new way of life as they settle in the United States. They are exposed to

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a new culture through experiencing transition and acculturation process. This

process is stressful for immigrants because of many issues. Korean immigrants

may face issues such as identity confusion, value differences, language difficulty,

difficult finding appropriate job related to education level, financial hardship,

racial discrimination, lack of social support, a generation gap between parents and

children causing different levels of adjustment, marital conflict and so forth (Kuo

& Tsai, 1984; Kim & Rew, 1994; Rotter & Hawley, 1998; Shin, 1994).

There are many studies about the mental health of immigrants related to

the stressful acculturation and transition process (Rotter & Hawley, 1998; Kuo &

Tsai, 1986; Shin, 1994; Franks & Faux, 1990). According to those studies,

immigrants have more stressful life events than members of the majority do and

pervasive depressive symptoms have been found. In Asian culture, people are not

comfortable with expressing their mental health or mental disease because mental

disease is regarded as a social stigma. Thus, Asian immigrants are reluctant to see

mental health professionals. Instead, they seek help from medical professionals

with the psychosomatic symptoms of depression such as headaches, loss of

appetite, sleeping disturbance, digestive problems and so forth (Root, 1985).

Depression is prevalent especially among the immigrant women. Meleis

(1991) called immigrant women as an “at risk population (p.367)” because they

have a high risk for physical and mental distress through carrying out their

multiple roles.

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Approximately 45% of Korean immigrants are women (Shin & Shin,

1999). Korean-American women also face multiple role expectations in the

United States although they have hard time during transition. Korean-American

women have more value conflicts between new western values and the traditional

Korean values. Those values are emphasized as two opposite values such as

submissive and passivity vs. assertiveness and productivity (Lee, 1988, cite in

Shin, 1994).

Usually commitment to a given role expectation is not easy regardless of

gender and group status of being a majority or minority. Amatea, Cross, Clark, &

Bobby (1986) suggested that the primary sources of personal stress are an

individual’s occupational and family role expectations. On the other hand, there

are positive aspects in accomplishing given multiple roles such as individual

achievement, and social success, satisfaction in family relationship and rewards

from accomplishing given roles.

Korean-American women have five different areas of expected roles:

occupational role, three family roles including parental, marital and daughter-in-

law’s role, and the role of being an immigrant. These multiple roles seem very

challenging to accomplish but may give rewards depending on how one accepts

and commits to these roles.

In general, wives stay at home as homemakers in Korea. When they

immigrate to the United States, they usually participate in family finance and

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share the responsibilities of earning an income with their husband as co-

breadwinner. According to previous studies (Kim & Hurh, 1993; Min, 1992)

approximately 70% of Korean-American wives in the Los Angeles and New York

City areas were employed outside the home as full-time employees while only

18% of wives held a job in Korea.

This employment situation has two opposite effects toward Korean-

American women. First, they may have more opportunities to pursue an

individual career in the United States and have more chances to achieve

occupational rewards. These rewards may give them better personal and social

status than in Korea. Korean-American women may have financial independence

and social achievement through pursuing their personal career. It helps their

mental health through reinforcing self-esteem and contributing to psychological

and physical well being (Nikelly, 1997).

Second, Korean-American women may have a double burden as

homemaker and employee out side the home if household duties are not shared

with their spouses. In case of American couples, although they share the

household tasks, they tend to maintain the gender differences in the division of

labor. Therefore, wives take charge of traditional female household tasks such as

cooking, dishes, cleaning and child care while as husbands make repairs and

maintain services (Min, 1998). This tendency of gender different labor division is

stronger among Korean immigrant families because they have been influenced by

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traditional philosophy, patriarchal Confucianism. This philosophy defines each

gender role of family and the household role is the wives’ primary responsibility.

In addition, Korean-American immigrant women have language barriers.

Most of them were employed in low-paying but labor intensive jobs regardless of

their level of education in Korea (Kim & Hurh, 1988). In this case Korean-

American women may get stressed in doing their job rather than in achieving

rewards.

Korean-American women face challenges in their family roles in United

States because they have a value conflict between the traditional Korean value

system and new western value influence. The philosophy of Confucianism has

dominated the ethical and moral system of Korean traditionally. According to this

doctrine, the husband is expected to command his wife, while wife is expected to

obey him (Moon & Song, 1998; Kim & Hurh, 1988).

In male centered patriarchal Confucianism, the wife is expected to be

submissive and belongs to the husband and is a care givers to the husband’s

family. Wives are required to be a mother who has the primary responsibility in

child care, a submissive and passive wife who takes care of all household tasks

without regards to employment status. Finally wives also have the primary

responsibility to take care of parents-in-law with obedience and respect (Blount &

Carry, 1993; Moon, 1998).

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Through the process of acculturation Korean-American women experience

western values that emphasize independence, gender role equality, nuclear family

orientation, and individualism, which are directly against the traditional Korean

value system. In addition, the degree of acculturation is varied among family

members especially between wife and husband; the husband tends to maintain his

traditional gender role while the wife tends to apply the new values to her life.

These different levels of acculturation may induce marital conflict.

Also, different levels of acculturation have an effect on the wives

relationship with both parents-in-law and their children. Korean-American

women are in the middle of two generations and may get stressed as they attempt

to mediate between and communicate with both their parents and their children.

Every person has several roles to accomplish personally and socially

throughout life. However, Korean-American women have multiple roles. They

are expected to do perform the roles as an employee, mother, wife, daughter-in-

law, and immigrant. It is assumed that there are both positive and negative

aspects to accomplishing these expected multiple roles. This study will assess

how Korean-American women feel about the rewards and commitments of these

multiple roles.

The instrument in this study is designed by revising the Life Role Salience

Scales (Amatea et al., 1986). The Life Role Salience Scales were designed to

assess men's and women's role salience. Each question represents a reward or

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commitment of given four roles including occupation, marital, parental, and home

care. To assess multiple role salience of Korean-American women, variable of

home care was excluded in this study. Instead, two roles of daughter-in-law and

being an immigrant were added.

Statement of the Problem

The purpose of this study is to assess how Korean-American women feel

about their multiple role expectations. This study will also describe the level of

rewards and commitment toward given multiple roles as measured by the revised

Life Role Salience Scales for Korean-American women in five areas-

occupational, parental, marital, daughter-in-law and immigrant. This study will

focus on the following objectives:

1. Describe the marital, parental, daughter-in-law, occupational, and

immigrant role rewards and role commitment of Korean-American

women.

2. Determine the most favorable role among five different roles for

Korean-American women.

3. Compare the role salience scores of Korean-American women based

on age.

4. Compare the role salience of Korean-American women based on

length of residence in the United States.


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employment status.

Definition of Terms

Confucianism - Socio-political philosophy established in ethical and moral system

in Korea traditionally. It still influences all social relations in family, community,

and society.

Double burden - Two overload responsibilities of Korean-American woman who

accomplishes her role as an employee and a homemaker.

Immigrant - Person who changes his/her nationality and citizenship through

settling in another country.

Korean-American - Korean who moved in the United States permanently and

lives as an American citizen by immigration.

Role - The pattern of behavior that is socially prescribed to an individual

corresponding to one's status in a particular society.

Role Commitments- The act of doing and performing one's role.

Role Reward - Something that is given in return for performing and

accomplishing one's role.

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Chapter II

Review of Literature

A review of literature is explored in this chapter. Two theories about

multiple roles are introduced and four subtitles follow. The Four subtitles consist

of influence of being an immigrant, occupational role, three family roles as

women including a mother, wife, and daughter-in-law, and a summary.

Five different roles that Korean-American women are expected to

accomplish, is included based on their everyday lives. Those roles for Korean-

American woman are as an employee, a wife, a mother, a daughter-in-law, and an

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immigrant minority in the Unites States. Through commitment to given multiple

roles in daily living, Korean-American women might have rewards and

achievements or might get stressed due to frustrate heavy burden of given roles.

Amatea et al. (1986) suggested that personal work and family role

expectations are the primary sources of stress regardless of gender. Researchers

also found that the stress of the parent role and experiences from other roles are

related to psychological well being of women who have multiple roles (Martire,

Stephens, & Townsend, 2000). There are two opposite aspects to commitment

given personal multiple roles – rewards and distresses.

Meleise, Norbeck, & Laffrey (1989) introduced two competing theories

about multiple roles that have been developed to examine the relationship

between role demands, commitments and its consequences. The first theory is

"scarcity theory" defined that "energy expended in one role is not available for

other roles (p. 356)". It was assumed that multiple roles like marital, maternal,

occupational roles – if overloaded - might effect on individual's health physically

and psychologically (Goode, 1960, cite in Meleis et al, 1989). This theory focused

on the costs of multiple role commitments but did not pay attention to various

rewards from these multiple roles.

The second theory is "enhancement or expansion theory" which is defined

as "the more roles women enact, the higher their potential for rewards and

resources (Marks, 1977; Sieber, 1974; Thoits, 1983; cite in Meleis et al., 1989,

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p.356)". This theory focused on positive results of multiple roles and emphasized

various rewards of multiple roles. This theory regards multiple roles as personal

sources of mastery, self-esteem, and social and financial rewards (Stephens,

Franks, & Townsend, 1994).

However, researchers concluded that changing roles and having multiple

roles could have both positive and negative consequences. The consequence of

multiple roles are defined due to the quality of role experiences and to the degree

of connection and correlation between given roles (Meleis, et al., 1989; Stephens,

et al., 1994).

In the case of women who are employed, they appear to show overall

better mental health than women who do not work out side the home (Meleis et

al., 1989). This research assumed that working women might have the experience

of meditating their pressures through occupational experiences. Martire, et al.

(2000) also found that greater centrality of employee role is positively associated

with psychological well-being for both men and women. On the other hand, a

mother who takes total responsibility of childcare, is positively related with a

higher degree of stress-related illness than those women who have are mothers

and have more roles (Meleis et al., 1989).

Kim & Rew (1994) found that role integration was positively associated

with quality of life while as it was negatively associated with depression among

Korean-American women. Korean-American women who showed a healthy

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status mentally, enjoyed their new life between two the different cultures; Korean

and American. They also were more satisfied with their multiple roles than those

who were not enjoying their new life. Kim & Rew (1994) found several variables

that were associated with quality of life, which include level of education, family

income, husband's individual earnings, and women's length of residence in the

United States.

Korean-American women are expected to accomplish five multiple roles;

mother, wife, daughter-in-law, employee and immigrant in the United States.

These multiple roles are correlated with one another closely. As theses Korean-

American women have changed their status through immigration, the process of

acculturation effects on every part of their multiple roles. The roles of immigrant

and employee are new ones for Korean-American women and these new roles

influence on their family roles of spouse, mother, and daughter-in-law.

The status of being an immigrant has positive and negative aspects for

Korean-American women. These women might have new opportunities in

personal and social life and enjoy the new culture or they might lose previous

privileges by being a member of the minority with the stress of acculturation.

Influences of Being an Immigrant

There are many research studies about immigrants and their condition of

mental health as a minority in the United States. Franks & Faux (1990) and Kim

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& Rew (1994) found that immigrants were exposured to a high risk for depression

and other mental health problems due to language barriers.

Factors that contributed to depression among immigrants included failing

to find an appropriate occupation, insufficient English skills, limited social

support, social isolation, fewer personal coping skills and negative public

attitudes (Vega, Kolody & Valle, 1986; Franks & Faux, 1990; Rotter & Hawley,

1998). These stresses might be expressed through personal mental health issues

such as depression, substance abuse, and anxiety as well as family issues such as

marital conflicts and parenting difficulties.

Due to cultural differences, Asian immigrants have tendencies that express

those depressions as somatic complaints rather than psychological symptoms.

Therefore many Asian Americans seek help from medical professionals rather

than mental health professionals with psychosomatic symptoms such as

headaches, loss of appetite, difficulty sleeping, allergies, digestive problems

(Root, 1985).

Researchers found that minority groups have more stress than general

populations in society. Environmental factors that cause them stress include

poverty, discrimination, cultural difference and linguistic problems (Kuo, 1984;

Kim & Rew, 1994). Moreover, Kuo (1984) found that Korean samples showed

more depression among his Asian research subjects, which included Chinese,

Japanese, and Philippines. This result indicated that Korean immigrants might

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have more difficulties in adjusting life in the United States than other Asian

groups.

Depression and hardship due to immigration may bring a fatal

consequence to immigrant women. In the study of self-harm and suicidal

behaviors of immigrant women, Thompson (2000) found that the primary cause

of suicides for immigrant women was family problems such as conflict with

spouse and parent-in-laws as well as social stresses.

Meleis (1991) considered that immigrant women had at high risk for

physical and mental distress and were an "at-risk population (p. 367)". He

explained that immigrant women had a hard a time carrying multiple roles

because these roles were sometimes invisible and unacknowledged. They are

expected to make sense between two different cultures and to establish their

values. At the same time, immigrant women struggle with linguistic difficulties

and different symbolic meanings.

Flores-Oritz (1991) defined women's psychological health, psychological

well being and psychological fit. When there is the absence of psychiatric

symptomologies such as symptoms of depression, anxiety, or psychosomatic

concerns, the individual is usually determined as a psychological healthy person.

Psychological well being of a woman is determined on the basis of her ability to

perform socially expected and mandated roles. Psychological fit is determined

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when a woman has a highly regard for herself and accepts herself in terms of her

occupation, her marital relationship, her parental role and her other social roles.

According to Flores-Oritz's (1991) definition of women's psychological

health, well being and fit, immigrant women seem to be unstable psychologically.

They showed depressive symptoms, had a hard time adjusting in the new culture,

and had multiple roles.

The process of acculturation is also very stressful because this process

induces various issues. Shin (1994) suggested that during the period of

acculturation, the immigrants were apt to have more stressful life events than the

members of the majority related to the status of being minority, discrimination,

switching occupations, and cultural differences. In addition, depressive symptoms

were found in immigrants especially among the immigrant women. Kuo & Tsai

(1986) found that immigrants have more serious mental health problems than

Americans due to excessive social stress during the uprooting process. During the

transition of acculturation, immigrant families might experience complicated

feelings such as feelings of loss, sadness, emptiness, confusion, happiness, and

elation and struggle with the value differences between their original culture and

the new culture (Rotter & Hawley, 1998).

Every member of the family has a different degree of acculturation and

this induces another issue. Different stages of acculturation among the family

members could be a cause of generation gap between parents and children as well

22

as marital conflict between spouses about gender role expectations. Rotter &

Hawley (1998) found that immigrant children tended to adjust in the new

cultures; language, styles of dress, TV program, music, food, lifestyle, habits etc.,

more easily than their parents do. As a result, they took on more traditional adult

roles. These family role changes might cause trangenerational conflicts between

parents and their children and it might come out with these issues – ethnic

identity, language, life style, education, customs and manners, religion, family

ritual and so forth.

Shin (1984) found that Korean immigrants had lots of stresses related to

conflict between traditional and new values, identity confusion, communication

problems, and discrimination or prejudice. Lee (1988, cite in Shin, 1994)

explained that women might have more value conflict between traditional and

new values because they were raised in eastern culture that emphasized

submissiveness and passivity for women while the American culture emphasizes

individualism and assertiveness.

Immigration has many positive aspects because immigrants have more

opportunities to rebuild their lives, to obtain new education, to develop a new

social network, and to enjoy a new culture in the new country. Kuo & Tsai (1986)

suggested that immigrants challenged their life and tried to find an alternative

way of living to reroot their social network and achieve success in transplanting

their lives from their homeland to the United States. Thus, Kuo & Tsai (1986)

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called this process of decision-making and commitment of emigration that "

appraising the challenge", " surviving alternatives", and " information seeking" (

p. 135).

In the Flores-Oritz (1991) research study about Chicana women,

traditional sex role expectation and lack of economic opportunity were correlated

with depression. However, increasing acculturation would be reflected in

preference for more egalitarian family and marital arrangement. The level of

acculturation was primarily reflected change in familism and ethnic identification

and acculturation may bring about change in the meaning of family. Chicana

women with greater academic attainment continued to value a strong,

interdependent family and voiced a strong preference for egalitarian marital

partnership rather than the traditional marriage they observed in their families of

origin.

Occupational Role

There are three critical issues related with the occupational role for

Korean-American women: the labor quality of employment, double burden role,

and different education background. Among employed Korean-American women,

many hold labor-intensive jobs regardless their former level of education. They

take primary responsibility for household chores and childcare and had received

education that was emphasized being passive and submissive women in Korea

(Kim & Hurh, 1988).

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Traditionally husbands were the sole breadwinners in Korean family.

After immigration to the United States, the role of breadwinner is shared with

their wives. Approximately 70% of Korean-American wives in the Los Angeles,

and New York City areas have a job outside the home as full-time workers while

as only 18.8% of wives are employed in Korea (Kim & Hurh, 1993; Min, 1992).

The 1990 census showed that approximately 20% of women 16 years and older

were self-employed or unpaid family workers while as 6% of counter part of

American women did (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1994).

Many Korean-American families are self-employed or run a small family

business such as liquor store or laundry shop and so forth because these

businesses are easier to run than finding employment due to the barriers of

language, cultural differences, racial and ethnic discrimination, and lack of

transferability of work experience. Under these situations, wives who are willing

to accept to long work hours as unpaid workers in their family businesses help

their family, overcome financial hardship and achieve success (Chang & Moon,

1998). These data assumed that many Korean-American women might not have

satisfaction or achievement from their employment. Instead they were merely

sharing the role of breadwinner with husbands for overcome their financial

hardship in the new country.

As employment was not anticipated by the most immigrant wives, they did

not have adequate preparation for additional new roles (Kim & Hurh, 1988). This

25

sudden additional role is highly stressful and usually their employment conditions

are not favorable. There were wives who had anticipated working outside the

home before immigration and were willing to participate actively in earning for

their family in the United States (Kim & Kim, 1998). Although these wives had

motivation and willingness, it did not mean they had desire for career

development or financial independence. Rather, this willingness reflected their

sacrifice for family well being and financial need. Moreover, these ideas reflected

the Korean-American wives' traditional gender role orientation.

Working outside the home is not easy task for wives who hold the

traditional gender role and believe that the female, mother and wife, should take

care of the household, and that household chores are a female responsibility. In

the case of American couples, most of them tend to maintain the gender division

of labor. Although they share the household, main chores are the wives'

responsibility like cooking, dishwashing, cleaning, and childcare while husbands

take male’s traditional area like repairing simple house equipments, paying bills,

and yard work. Thus working wives suffer from stress role strain, and other forms

of depression due to their double responsibility of household work and

employment (Min, 1998). Korean-American working wives also usually take the

main responsibility for the household. They have a double burden of labor, home

maker and employee: In-the home they do house chores like cooking, cleaning,

26

washing dishes, and taking care of children, and outside of the home they do their

job as a paid employee (Min, 1998; Kim & Hurh, 1988).

According to Min's research (1998), Korean American women spend

longer hours than their working husbands for paid and domestic work. Overwork

is very stressful for Korean-American women physically as well as

psychologically because they experience language barriers and other adjustment

problems in paid work.

Kim & Hurh (1988) found that most of Korean-American women were

employed in low-paying but labor-intensive job regardless their educational level.

This unfavorable employment situation would not give them any meaningful

stimulation to develop an occupational career.

Although Korean-American women may desire developing a personal

career, they have two barriers to success in their occupational field. First, Korean-

American women were not raised within an individualism-oriented education,

which is necessary to compete and to have success in their career. Rhee (1998)

indicated that Korean culture did not nurture the area of personal qualities that

make for success and achievement of the individual in the American culture.

Second, the American workplace is not easy for Korean-American women to

achieve success because they need to overcome personal matters such as cultural

differences, and language difficulties as well as social matters including racial and

gender discrimination.

27

Nikelly (1997) found that some immigrant women achieve better status

personally and socially through having their own occupation, education, and

financial independence. Those immigrant women develop their independence in

the areas of finance, social relations and activities as well as increased life

satisfaction and psychological health.

According to Rhee's research (1998), many Korean-American women who

have overcome those barriers, refuse to submit themselves to debilitating negative

emotions and attitudes. They persist with an optimistic outlook, have a positive

attitude in facing critical situations, and are patient and tolerant.

Family Roles: Wife, Mother, and Daughter-in-Law

The philosophy of Confucianism is the basic doctrine of family

relationship in Korea. Although the western values like individualism, nuclear

family orientation, independence and gender equality are conveyed through the

development of industry and capitalism, most family relationship and roles are

still influenced by the traditional value of patriarchal Confucianism.

There are moral and ethical standards based upon Confucianism

philosophy in the Korean family in area of filial piety, obligation and obedience

toward parents, importance of family matters over individuals, a male-centered

hierarchical relationship and so forth (Moon & Song, 1998). This philosophy

shapes the male-centered expended family system and structure including gender

28

roles, marital relationships, kinship relationships, and importance of the

inheritance of the family line (Moon, 1998).

Patriarchal Confucianism provides a well-defined marital role in Korea

that "the husband is expected to command his wife, while the wife is expected to

obey him" (Kim & Hurh, 1988). In this male-centered Confucianism, the wife is

confined to her roles within the family and belongs to the husband's family as a

caregiver. A submissive wife commits to the subordinate role in her marriage. A

sacrificial mother has the primary responsibility for childrearing. An obedient

daughter-in-law is expected to respect parents-in-law with obligation and duty. In

addition, she is expected to take responsibility for all household chores and

finance (Blount & Carry, 1993; Moon, 1998).

In the United States, Korean-American women are experiencing western

values and this influences their marital relationship. They could adapt to the

egalitarian western culture in their marital life and this is related to a longer

length of residence in the United States. However, many Korean-American

husbands believe that changing the marital relationship and gender role from the

male-dominate power structure to an egalitarian relationship will threaten marital

harmony (Kim & Sung, 2000). These contrasting beliefs about the marital

relationship and the roles of wife and husband may bring marital conflict.

Son and daughter-in-law have the main responsibility to take care of their

older parents in Korea based upon the influence of Confucianism. Therefore,

29

many immigrant married children have invited their older parents from Korea to

the United States after settling. Elderly Korean parents also have difficulties and a

stressful adjustment process. They are likely to experience emotional distress

such as loss of social status and ties, language difficulty, cultural difference as

well as basic physical inconvenience i.e. lack of transportation (Yamamoto, Rhee

& Chang, 1994). Elderly Korean parents need a caregiver, usually a daughter-in-

law, because of their dependent situation and preference for maintaining

traditional values in their family relationship. It is assumed that the role of

daughter-in-law is stressful for Korean-American women because they are busy

as mothers, wives and employees already. They rarely have the time and

emotional resources to take care of parents-in-law especially within the traditional

Korean family relationship.

In general, parents and their children have a generation gap. For the

immigrants, there is greater gap between the two generations because during the

process of adjustment these two generations have experience different levels of

the acculturation process (Moon & Song, 1998; Rotter & Hawley, 1998). Parents

tend to strongly hold their traditional values in daily lives in the United States

including respect toward elders, dividing and keeping gender roles, and

maintaining the extended family orientation. Children tend to accept western

values more easily such as individualism, independence, and gender equality.

30

Therefore, the different levels of acculturation induce a generation gap as well as

a communication gap between parents and their children.

Hong & Hong (1996) introduced the notion of children's education among

Korean American immigrants. Most Korean-American immigrants educate their

children for achieving success especially academic performance. It is also the

influence of Confucianism that emphasizes education and respecting the educated

person. Even though the Korean-American family has a generation gap and a lack

of communication between parents and children, their children show outstanding

academic achievement. Approximately 5% of the Ivy League enrollments are

Korean Americans, although they are less than 1% of total population in the

United States. This academic achievement can be a reward for Korean-American

mother even though they sacrificed a lot.

Family structure, acceptable spouses, family member roles, life stages, and

rites of passage are defined by one's own culture (Blount & Carry, 1993). In

Korean culture, marriage is a union of two different families rather than

individuals. A wife enters her husband's family as a subordinate. Korean wives

are expected to be submissive to her husband and parents-in-law including other

family members of the husband (Kim & Hurh, 1988). These norms are challenged

in the Unites States and thus many Korean-American women face internal value

confusion and external conflict with family members.

Summary

31

There are many research studies about immigrants and their alternative

lives in the new world. A review of literature review revealed that Korean-

American women are expected to accomplish their given multiple roles as

mothers, wives, daughters-in-law, employees, and immigrants. There are positive

and negative aspects in each role with satisfaction as a reward and distress as a

negative result. Also, Korean-American women are challenged with the new

values. Their attitudes and perspectives toward given multiple roles are varied.

This study will assess role salience for Korean-American women and

describe rewards and commitments toward their given roles. Also, this study

determines the most favorable role among different areas for them.

Chapter III

Methodology

The methodology section contains an objective of this study, description

of participants, instrument, procedure, and method of data analysis. The limitation

is followed.

Objectives

32

1. Describe the marital, parental, daughter-in-law, occupational, and

immigrant role rewards and role commitment of Korean-American

women.




on age.




employment status.

Participants

Approximately 120 Korean-American women, over 30 years old, were

surveyed in this study from the states of Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, Virginia

and Wisconsin. They participated to a survey after getting explanation of the

purpose of the research. Eighty-two surveys (68% response rate) were returned

and 80 surveys were used in analysis.

Instrument

The instrument selected and revised for this study was The Life Role

Salience Scales (Amatea et al., 1986). The Life Role Salience Scales (LRSS)

contains 40 items, which represent four major life roles: occupational, marital,

33

parental, and home care. On the test of the academic women (n=270), the

correlation between factor scores are .68 or above (p≤ .001), and the similarity

indices are .85 or above (p≤ .001). In this test, three sub-scales (parental, marital,

occupational role) had alpha coefficients between .49 and .89 (p≤ .001), and

test-retest correlation coefficients were between .58 and .87 (p≤ .001). The

study of married couple (male=150, female=150) with LRSS, the coefficient

alpha estimates of internal consistency was high and ranked from .79 to .94 (p≤

.001).

The Revised instrument has excluded the home care role rewards and

commitments subscales and added the two roles of daughter-in-law and

immigrant. These four subscales of five items each were developed by the

researcher. The revised instrument has 50 items and each role is represented by

two dimensions: reward and commitment. A Likert-type attitude scale format was

adopted in this instrument with five possible response choices; 1-strongly

disagree, 2-disagree, 3-undecided, 4-agree, 5-strongly agree.

The revised instrument had two different language versions- English and

Korean. Although many Korean-American women are bilingual and can

34

understand both English and Korean, most Korean-American women prefer

Korean to English.

As the instrument that used in this study was revised, and translated to

Korean, no information on reliability or validity is available. A complete copy of

the instrument is located in Appendix A.

Procedure

The data collection procedure used two techniques, snowball technique

and direct survey technique with post mailing. Instruments and letters were sent

to acknowledge mediators in the area of Chicago, Illinois, Gaithersburg,

Maryland, Lorton, Virginia, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The researcher had

informed each mediator of the purpose of this study and mediators found

participants who were Korean-American women over 30 years old. Using the

snowball technique, mediators asked their Korean-American friends who met the

study criteria to complete the instrument at church, school, and work. Some

participants took several instruments with them and returned these to the mediator

after surveying their other Korean-American female friends. Every participant

received the instrument in Korean or English depending on her preference and

each person participated voluntarily.

The pastor of the Korean church in Minneapolis was called and informed

about this study. He was asked for permission of survey his church members after

worship on Sunday. After receiving permission from the pastor, Korean-

35

American women were asked to participate this survey. When they consented to

participate in this survey voluntarily, a letter and addressed returned envelope

with a stamp was given for returning the completed instrument. Most participants

took this instrument and envelop with them to complete at home. They sent back

completed instrument by mail during following three weeks.

Approximately 120 surveys were given to participants including both the

snowball technique and direct survey technique. After three weeks, 82 completed

surveys were returned by mail. This was very high response rate (approximately

68%). Two surveys that had incomplete data were omitted in analysis. A total of

80 surveys (20 English version and 60 Korean version) were analyzed in this

study.

Data Analysis

The data were processed at the University of Wisconsin-Stout Computer

Center. The frequency of each item in section I was computed. After the reversed

items in section II were identified, the 50 items and ten subscales were analyzed

in terms of means and standard deviations. Cronbach’s alpha internal consistency

test was used to determine the reliability coefficient of these subscales.

To answer the objectives of this research, t-tests were computed. Subjects

were divided two groups, younger and older age group for comparing their mean

subscales totals on role rewards and commitments. Also, employment situation,

whether employed or unemployed, and length of residence in the United States

36

that 14 years or less and 15 years more of residence, were analyzed using t-test on

the 10 subscales.

Limitations

The following limitations apply to this study:

1. There is a limitation in translating the meaning of each question into

Korean version instrument. Although a bilingual person translated to

English to Korean, it is possible that differences of meaning and

nuance in two language instruments existed.

2. Although subjects were from five different states and data were

collected from 80 individuals, the results may not be

representative from all of Korean-American women over 30 years old.

3. In this study, there is no consideration about level of generation

differences, such as whether first or second generation. Different

generations may have different perspectives about their given roles. In

addition, place of given birth was not considered neither although

some of participants might have not experience of Korean culture

regardless age.

4. A fourth limitation is that the subscales on daughter-in-law role

rewards and commitments and immigrant role rewards and

commitments were developed by the researcher.

37

Despite these limitations, this study can be used to the source of

information and understand the multiple roles of Korean-American women. This

present study also suggests feelings Korean-American women hold toward their

multiple roles and rewards and commitment of their given roles.

Chapter IV

Results

This chapter described the findings of the present study of Korean-

American women's multiple roles including rewards and commitments. Eighty

surveys were collected and analyzed from approximately 120 subjects. Sixty

38

participants completed the Korean-version of the instrument and 20 completed the

English version.

The demographic characteristics of subjects including age, marital status,

length of residence in the United States, living situation, employment status, and

number of children were described. The mean and standard deviation of each item

and subscales were illustrated in the results section. Also, the reliability

coefficient and t-test results of subscales were examined in this chapter. A

discussion relating the findings of this study to the review of literature followed.

Demographic Characteristics

Demographic information was collected for descriptive purposes and to

determine differences between specific groups of subjects. Information on age,

marital status, years of marriage, length of residence in the United States, living

situation, employment status, and number of children were described.

Age Range

The subjects were divided into 10-year interval age groups such as 30-39,

40-49, 50-59, 60-69, and 70 years old and older in this study. The largest age

group was 30-39 years old (46.3 %, n=37). See Table 1.

Table 1. Age Range

Age Range Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

39

30-39 years old 37 46.3 46.3 46.3

40-49 years old 17 21.3 21.3 67.6

50-59 years old 19 23.8 23.8 91.4

60-69 years old 6 7.5 7.5 98.9

70 years and order 1 1.3 1.3 100.0

Total 80 100.0 100.0

Marital Status

Korean-American women in this study showed a stable marital status.

Approximately 90% of subjects (n=71) were married including 3.8% (n=3) of

subjects who were remarried. Above 10% of participants (n=8) were single

including 6.3% (n=5) divorced, 2.5% (n=2) widowed, and 1.3% (n=1) never been

married. See Table 2. Subjects ranged from 1 year to 43 years of years married.

The years of marriage mean score was 16.59 years (S.D.=11.03).

Table 2. Marital Status

Marital Status Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

Never married 1 1.3 1.3 1.3

Married 68 85.0 86.1 87.2

Divorced 5 6.3 6.3 93.7

Widowed 2 2.5 2.5 96.2

Remarried 3 3.8 3.8 100.0

40

Total 79 98.8 100.0

Length of Residence

The distribution of residence in the United States ranged from 1 year to 41

years in this study. The mean score of years by residence was 15.47 years

(S.D.=9.75). Approximately 40% of subjects had lived in the United States less

than 10 years (39.2%, n=31), approximately 30% of them lived here 11-20 years,

and less than 30% (n=23) of them lived in this country over two decades. See

Table 3.

Table 3. Length of Residence

Length of Residence Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

1-10 years 31 38.9 39.2 39.2

11-20 years 25 31.4 31.6 70.9

21 years and more 23 29.2 29.1 100.0

Total 79 99.5 100.0

Living Situation

Approximately two-thirds of subjects lived (65%, n=52) within an intact

family, which included spouse and children. Less than one-fourth (23.8%, n=19)

of participants lived with their spouse only, and 6.3% (n=5) of them lived with

their children. Only four participants (5%) lived alone. See Table 4.

41

As most of the subjects lived in intact nuclear families, the rate of living

with their own parents or spouse's parents was very low. Six percent of subjects

(5%) lived with their own parents and 2.55 % (n=2) of them lived with parents-in-

law. See Table 4.

Table 4. Living Situation

Living Situation Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

Spouse and children 52 65.0 65.0 65.0

Spouse only 19 23.8 23.8 88.8

Children only 5 6.3 6.3 95.0

Live by self 4 5.0 5.0 100.0

Total 80 100.0 100.0

Employment Status

More than half of Korean-American women (55.7%, n=44) were

employed in a job including part-time (17.7%, n=14), full-time employment

(27.8%, n=22), self-employed (6.3%, n=5), and employed in a family business

(3.8%, n=3). Less than one-half of the subjects (44.3%, n=35) were homemakers

without an occupation out of home. See Table 5.

Table 5. Employment Status

Employment Status Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative

42

Percent Unemployed 35 43.8 44.3 44.3

Part time/20 hrs wk 11 13.8 13.9 58.2

Part time/30 hrs wk 3 3.8 3.8 62.0

Full time 22 27.5 27.8 89.9

Self employed 5 6.3 6.3 96.2

Business w/Family 3 3.8 3.8 100.0

Table 6. Number of Children

Number of Children Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

No Child 5 6.3 6.3 6.3

1 Child 18 22.5 22.5 28.8

2 Children 42 52.5 52.5 81.3

3 Children 15 18.8 18.8 100.0

Total 80 100.0 100.0

Number of Children

Of the 75 respondents (93.7%) had at least one child. The mean number of

children was 1.84 (S.D.=. 8). The largest number of children was three for these

subjects (18.8%, n=15). More than one- half of participants had two children

(52.5%, n=42) while 5 subjects (6.3%) did not have any children. See Table 6.

43

Results

Korean-American women who were surveyed in this study responded to

each item of the instrument. Using a Likert Scale, they chose the response of

either strongly disagree (1), disagree (2), undecided (3), agree (4), and strongly

agree (5) for each of the 50 items.

44

The instrument was consisted to two variables, role rewards and role

commitments. Each variable had five subscales including occupational, parental,

marital, daughter-in-law and immigrant's role. The mean and standard deviation

score of each subscale was illustrated in Table 7.

On the variable of role rewards, parental role reward had the highest mean

score, 4.30 among five subscales. Subjects of this study responded that familial

roles such as parental, marital, and daughter-in-law's roles gave them more

rewards than social roles including occupational and immigrant roles. The

parental role rewards had mean score of 4.30. The marital role had mean score of

3.78, and daughter-in-law role mean score was 3.52. The immigrant's role reward

had the lowest mean score of 3.25 and occupational role rewards had the second

lowest mean score of 3.34. See Table 7.

On the variables of role commitments, subjects had a different pattern of

mean scores. The parental role commitment had the highest mean score of 3.89

and marital role had the second highest mean score of 3.84. The immigrant role

commitment followed as third with a 3.51 mean score. Daughter-in-law's role

commitment was chosen the fourth (mean score of 3.17) followed by occupational

role commitment with a mean score of 3.13. See Table 7. The mean and standard

deviation scores of each item with the subscales were illustrated in Table 8-12.

Table 7. Rewards and Commitments of each Subscale

45

Subscale Mean Standard Deviation

Occupational Role Rewards 3.34 .61

Occupational Role Commitments 3.13 .64

Parental Role Rewards 4.30 .50

Parental Role Commitments 3.89 .53

Marital Role Rewards 3.78 .63

Marital Role Commitments 3.84 .53

Daughter-in-law Role Rewards 3.52 .71

Daughter-in-law Role Commitments 3.17 .66

Immigrant Role rewards 3.25 .61

Immigrant Role Commitments 3.51 .52

Table 8. Occupational Role Rewards and Commitments

Occupational Role Subscales n Mean S.D.

1. Having work/a career that is interesting and exciting to

me is my most important life goal. 80 3.13 1.12

11. I expect my job/career to give me more real

satisfaction than anything else I do. 79 3.04 1.01

46

21. Building a name and reputation for myself through

work/ a career is not one of my life goals. 80 2.73 1.11

31. It is important to me that I have a job/a career in which

I can achieve something of importance. 80 3.85 .84

41. It is important to me to feel successful in my work/

career. 80 3.98 .73

Occupational Role Rewards Subscales Total 79 3.34 .60

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -2. I want to work, but I do not want to have a demanding

career. 80 2.51 1.01

12. I expect to make as many sacrifices as are necessary in

order to advance in my work/career. 80 2.85 1.06

22. I value being involved in a career and expect to devote

the time and effort needed to develop it. 79 3.28 1.01

32. I expect to devote a significant amount of my time to

building my career and developing the skills necessary

to advance in my career.

80 3.49 .86

42. I expect to devote whatever time and energy it takes to

move up In my job/career field. 80 3.53 .84

Occupational Role Commitments Subscales Total 79 3.12 .64

Table 9. Parental Role Rewards and Commitments

Parental Role Subscales n Mean S.D.

3. Although my parenthood requires many sacrifices, the

love and enjoyment of children of one's own are worth

it all.

80 4.55 .65

47

13. If I chose not to have children, I would regret it. 80 4.22 .76

23. It is important to me to feel I am (will be) an effective

parent. 80 4.41 .72

33. I do not find the whole idea of having children and

raising them attractive. 80 4.33 .81

43. My whole life would be empty if I never had children. 80 4.00 .93

Parental Role Rewards Subscales Total 80 4.30 .50

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 4. It is important to me to have some time for myself and

my own development rather than have children and

be responsible for their care.

80 3.74 1.03

14. I expect to devote a significant amount of my time and

energy to the rearing of children of my own. 78 4.23 .75

24. I expect to be very involved in the day-to-day matters

of rearing children of my own. 78 4.18 .85

34. Becoming involved in the day-to-day details of rearing

children involves costs in other areas of my life which I

am unwilling to make.

80 2.99 1.24

44. I do not expect to become very involved in childrearing. 79 4.37 .85

Parental Role Commitments Subscales Total 76 3.90 .49

Table 10. Marital Role Rewards and Commitments

Marital Role Subscales n Mean S.D.

5. My life would be empty if I never married. 80 3.18 1.18

15. Having a successful marriage is the most important

thing in my life. 80 4.39 .74

48

25. I expect marriage to give me more personal satisfaction

than anything else in which I am involved. 79 3.66 1.04

35. Being married to a person that I love is more important

to me than anything else. 80 4.19 .75

45. I expect the major satisfaction in my life to come from

my marriage relationship. 79 3.51 1.10

Marital Role Rewards Subscales Total 80 3.78 .63 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 6. I expect to commit whatever time it is necessary to

making my marriage partner feel loved, supported and

cared for.

80 4.10 .70

16. I do not expect to devote a significant amount of my

time to being with or doing thing with a marriage

partner.

80 4.20 .83

26. I expect to put a lot of time and effort into building and

maintaining a marital relationship. 79 4.03 .75

36. Really involving myself in a marriage relationship

involves costs in other areas of my life which I am

unwilling to accept.

79 2.96 1.29

46. I expect to work hard to build a good marriage

relationship even if it means limiting my opportunities

to pursue other personal goals.

80 3.93 .78

Marital Role Commitments Subscales Total 80 3.84 .52

Table 11. Daughter-in-law Role Rewards and Commitments

Daughter-in-law Role Subscales n Mean S.D.

7. I am basically satisfied with my relationship with my 80 3.63 .85

49

husband’s parents.

17. I enjoy having a close relationship with my parents-in-

law. 78 3.45 .89

27. It is important me to respect and take care of my in-

laws. 76 3.66 .86

37. I feel stress due to my relationship with my in-laws. 78 3.28 1.17

47. If I was not involved in a relationship with my in-laws,

I would be happier than now. 79 3.59 1.10

Daughter-in-law Role Rewards Subscales Total 79 3.52 .71

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 8. I am willing to accept the duty of a daughter-in-law,

even though it requires many sacrifices. 80 3.51 .89

18. I expect to make as many sacrifices as are necessary to

maintain and improve my in-law relationship. 79 3.10 .93

28. I am not committed to any in-law relationship. 78 3.83 .95

38. I expect to devote time and effort to on my in-law's

family rituals and activities as a daughter-in-law. 80 3.28 .99

48. Taking responsibility for my own family is more

important than getting involved with my in-laws. 80 2.17 .92

Daughter-in-law Role Commitments Subscales Total 80 3.17 .66

Table 12. Immigrant Role Rewards and Commitments

Immigrant Role Subscales n Mean S.D.

9. Immigrating has given me a better life. 80 3.53 .86

50

19. Living in the United States has helped me to improve

my status personally and socially. 80 2.83 1.03

29. Although I may have some language limitations,

overall I have more opportunities in the United States

than Korea.

80 3.38 .97

39. I enjoy the diversity of the American culture. 80 3.63 .80

49. I have experienced discrimination or unfairness as an

immigrant. 80 2.90 1.04

Immigrant Role Rewards Subscales Total 80 3.25 .61

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 10. I expect to devote a significant amount of time to

speaking English. 80 3.25 .92

20. I want to enjoy the Korean culture even though I live

in the United States. 80 3.74 .84

30. I expect to devote my time to be involved in American

community activities. 80 3.04 1.00

40. I am willing to keep on open mind and accept

American culture. 80 3.56 .84

50. I do not want to devote my time and effort adjusting

to American culture. 80 4.00 .73

Immigrant Role Commitments Subscales Total 80 3.51 .52

Instrument Reliability

51

Cronbach's alpha reliability scale was used to determine the reliability

coefficient of the subscales in this instrument. The reliability coefficients of 10

subscales were distributed from alpha of .4588 to alpha of .7689. See Table 13.

Overall these subscales had relatively good reliability coefficient of .65 or

above group prediction. However alpha of parental role commitments (alpha of

.4588), immigrant's role commitments (alpha of .5608), marital role commitments

(alpha of .6129), occupational role rewards (alpha of .6229), and marital role

rewards (alpha of .6365) were less substantial.

Table 13. Cronbach's Alpha Reliability Table

Subscale Reliability Coefficient

Occupational Role Rewards .6229

Occupational Role Commitments .7109

Parental Role Rewards .6576

Parental Role Commitments .4588

Marital Role Rewards .6365

Marital Role Commitments .6129

Daughter-in-law Role Rewards .7449

Daughter-in-law Role Commitments .7689

Immigrant Role rewards .6727

Immigrant Role Commitments .5608

Age and Role Salience

52

To answer the research objective of whether different age groups

perceived different levels of role rewards and role commitments among the

Korean-American women, a t-test was applied. Subjects were divided into two

groups regarding their age, the 39 years and younger and the 40 years and older

group. The mean score, result of t-test, degree of freedom and significance

between two groups were illustrated in Table 14.

Table 14. Age Difference and Role Rewards and Role Commitments

Subscale 39 and

younger

40 and

older t df Sig.

Occupational Role Rewards 3.29 3.38 -.682 78 .497

Occupational Role Commitments 3.12 3.13 -.080 78 .936

Parental Role Rewards 4.19 4.39 -1.805 78 .075

Parental Role Commitments 3.72 4.03 -2.673 77 .009

Marital Role Rewards 3.76 3.80 -.330 78 .740

Marital Role Commitments 3.68 3.97 -2.590 78 .011

Daughter-in-law Role Rewards 3.42 3.60 -1.152 77 .253

Daughter-in-law Role Commitments 3.09 3.24 -.994 78 .323

Immigrant Role rewards 3.11 3.36 -1.798 78 .076

Immigrant Role Commitments 3.41 3.60 -1.698 78 .093

Two significant differences were found on the perception of role

commitments on subscales of parental commitments, and marital role

53

commitments. The group of 40 years and older scored a mean of 4.04 and 39

years and younger scored a mean of 3.72 with a significance of .009 on parental

role commitments.

On marital role commitments, there was a significant difference of .011 on

the t-test. The older group scored significantly higher than the younger group.

Three trends were found on the subscales of parental role rewards, immigrant role

commitments, and immigrant role commitments. See Table 14.

Length of Residence and Role Salience

Subjects were divided into two groups, 14 years or less and 15 years or

more according to years of residence in the United States. To answer the research

objectives a t-test was applied between two groups as to whether these two groups

perceived different level of role rewards and expected different level of role

commitments. The mean score, result of t-test, degree of freedom and significance

between two groups were illustrated in Table 15.

Overall the 15 years and more residence group scored higher mean scores

on all 10 subscales than 14 years and less residence group. According to the result

of t-test, 15 years and more group perceived more rewards on immigrant role than

their counter group and scored 3.42 of mean (counter group-3.06) with a

significance of .009. They also had a 4.04 mean score with a significance of .011

on parental role commitments and 3.62 mean score with a significance of .033 on

54

immigrant role commitments. Also, a trend was found on marital role

commitment mean score of 3.93 vs. 3.72. See Table 15.

Table 15. Length of Residence and Role Rewards and Role Commitments

Subscale 14 years

or less

15 years

or more t df Sig.

Occupational Role Rewards 3.30 3.38 -.573 77 .568

Occupational Role Commitments 3.09 3.16 -.511 77 .611

Parental Role Rewards 4.23 4.36 -1.134 77 .260


Marital Role Rewards 3.70 3.88 -1.262 77 .211

Marital Role Commitments 3.72 3.93 -1.826 77 .072

Daughter-in-law Role Rewards 3.53 3.48 .257 76 .788


Immigrant Role Rewards 3.06 3.42 -2.662 77 .009


Employment Status and Role Salience

The t-test was used to answer the research objective that employment

status effect on different levels of role salience to subjects. Although subjects had

a different level and types employment, to apply t-test they were divided two

groups; unemployed and employed. Employed group showed a slightly higher

mean score than unemployed group on all of subscales except role rewards of

55

daughter-in-law. A significant difference was found between the two groups on

occupational role commitments. Those employed scored a significantly higher

than those unemployed.

According to the result of t-test two trends were found. The employed

group had a higher mean score of 3.90 than unemployed group (mean=3.65) on

marital role rewards. On the immigrant role commitments, the employed group

had higher mean score of 3.60 than the unemployed group. See Table 16.

Table 16. Employment Status and Role Rewards and Role Commitments

Subscale *Unemp **Emp t df Sig.

Occupational Role Rewards 3.25 3.41 -1.221 77 .226

Occupational Role Commitments 2.96 3.26 -2.058 77 .043

Parental Role Rewards 4.37 4.24 1.151 77 .253


Marital Role Rewards 3.65 3.90 -1.793 77 .077

Marital Role Commitments 3.79 3.85 -.530 77 .598

Daughter-in-law Role Rewards 3.55 3.48 .421 76 .675


Immigrant Role rewards 3.13 3.33 -1.480 77 .143


* Unemp = Unemployed ** Emp = Employed

Discussion

56

This chapter is a discussion of the findings from present research about

Korean-American women and their multiple role rewards and role commitments.

The discussion included the results of the research and how it was related to

previous research studies.

According to the previous research in chapter II, Korean-American

women had difficulties in accomplishing their multiple roles as employee,

mother, wife, daughter-in-law, and immigrant. They were required to overcome

several barriers to adjust in the United States as an immigrant such as language

difficulty, different values and culture, racial discrimination, finding appropriate

job, financial unstable and so forth (Kuo, 1984; Shin, 1994). Some Korean-

American women were stressed as a result of life as an immigrant and had a risk

to their mental health (Vega, Kolody & Valle, 1986; Frank & Faux, 1990; Rotter

& Hawley, 1998).

Korean-American women of this study perceived positive rewards on the

immigrant role and expressed the willingness of role commitment as immigrants.

Although they faced difficulties as immigrant, they showed an active involvement

in committing immigrant’s role. More, as they were 40 years or older with a job

and lived longer years in the United States, they felt more role rewards and had a

more positive attitude toward immigrants' role commitment. These results

corresponded to "enhancement or expansion theory" that focused on positive

57

results of multiple roles and emphasized various rewards from multiple

roles(Marks, 1977; Sieber, 1974; Thoits, 1983; cite in Meleis et al., 1989)

The subscales of occupation rewards and commitments were not favorable

role for subjects in this study although they marked 3.34 of mean score on role

rewards and 3.13 of mean score on role commitments on 5-point scales. As the

review of literature described, Korean-American women were involved in the

occupational role to help finance their family and had a hard time finding

appropriate and satisfying employment regarding their past education and work

careers (Kim & Hurh, 1988; Kim & Kim, 1998). Results of the present study

found that the perceptions and attitudes of subjects toward occupational role

rewards and commitments were the least favorable among five multiple roles.

Two both of parental and marital roles were the most favorable roles.

Subjects perceived role rewards and role commitment for both these familial

roles. The previous studies suggested that Korean-American women had value

conflict between traditional patriarchal Confucianism and the western

individualism in the United States and it induced conflicts among family members

such as equality gender role with spouse and generation gap (Kim & Sung, 2000;

Moon & Song, 1998; Rotter & Hawrey, 1998).

Subjects showed strong satisfaction on the parental role rewards subscale

in this study. Also, parental role commitments and marital role rewards and role

commitments had higher subscale mean scores than subscale scores for

58

occupational and immigrant roles. However, the role of daughter-in-law had

lower score on both rewards and commitments than the other familial roles. More,

role commitments of daughter-in-law have was the second least favorable

subscale among 10 of them. This result was related to the living situation that

most of them lived in an intact nuclear family and only 2.5% of them lived with

spouse' s parents.

59

Chapter V

Summary, Conclusions, and Recommendations

This final chapter was consisted in summary, conclusions, and

recommendations. In summary part, the purpose of the study, method and

procedure of data analysis was described. The findings and results of research

were explored in conclusions. The recommendation for further study was

followed.

Summary

The purpose of this study was to describe how Korean-American women

perceive role rewards and role commitments towards their expected multiple

roles. Ten subscales including rewards and commitments of occupational,

parental, marital, daughter-in-law and immigrant’s role were surveyed. The study

was designed to answer the following research objectives:

1. Describe the familial, occupational, and immigrant's role rewards and

role commitment of Korean-American women.




on age.



60


employment status of Korean American women.

The instrument for this study contained a demographic section to

collect information for comparison purpose. The demographic part asked for

age, marital status, length of residence, living situation, employment status,

and number of children.

To assess Korean-American women's perception of role rewards and

expectation of role commitments, The Life Role Salience Scales (Amatea et

al., 1986) was revised. The 50 items were used in this study included 20 items

that were designed for variable of immigrant and daughter-in-law's role. A

Likert scale was used to score each item with a scoring procedure from 1-5

(strongly disagree, disagree, undecided, agree, strongly agree).

Both the Korean-version and English-version of the instrument were

used according to preference of subjects. A direct surveying technique and a

snowball technique were used to collect data.

The data were analyzed at the University of Wisconsin-Stout

Computer Center in Menomonie, Wisconsin. The demographic section and 50

items of data were analyzed and mean scores and standard deviations were

calculated. The t-test was applied to compare between two groups the role

rewards and role commitments subscales.

61

Conclusions

Research objective 1. Describe the familial, occupational, and

immigrant's role rewards and role commitment of Korean-American women.

Korean-American women in this study accepted their multiple roles with positive

attitudes. They had mean score of 4.30 to 3.13 on the 10 subscales of role rewards

and role commitments. In the variable of rewards, subjects responded that marital

role, parental role, and daughter-in-law's role gave them more rewards than social

roles including occupational role and immigrant’s role. On the role commitment

subscales they showed more commitment on two familial roles as a mother and a

wife as well as the social role of immigrant.

Research objective 2. Determine the most favorable role among five

different roles for Korean-American women The parental role was the most

favorable role both perceiving reward and expecting commitment for Korean-

American women in study. Items 3, 23, and 33 were represented the parental role

reward subscale and had highest item mean scores. In the role commitment

variable, items 14, 24, and 44 represented the parental role commitment and had

higher mean item scores for 10 subscales.

Research objective 3. Compare the role salience scores of Korean-

American women based on age. The older age group, 40 years and older,

62

responded with more desire to commit parental role, marital role, and immigrant's

role than younger group, 39 years and younger, with significance of .009, .011,

and .093. They also perceived more rewards on parental role and immigrant's role

with significance of .075 and .076 than younger group.

Research objective 4. Compare the role salience of Korean-

American women based on length of residence in the United States. As

subjects lived in the United States longer period, they were more active to commit

to the roles including parental and immigrant's role. In addition, subjects who

lived here more than 15 years showed that they perceived more rewards on

immigrant's role with a significance of .009. Overall, longer residence was

positively related to the rewards and commit immigrant's role.

Research objective 5. Compare the role salience of Korean-American

women based on employment status of Korean American women. Subjects

who were employed were significantly more committed to the occupational role

than subjects who were not employed. Subjects who were employed responded

that they were more active to commit immigrant's role with a significance of .088

than subjects who were not employed were. Subjects who had a job also

perceived more rewards on their marital role and immigrant's role with

significance of .077and .088. than their counter part.

63

Recommendations

There were previous studies about Korean-American women and their

difficulties as an immigrant minority. The most studies were focused on negative

aspects of immigrants’ lives such as adjustment difficulty in the new culture,

value confusion, generation gap between family members, racial discrimination,

and so forth. However, there are many positive aspects on emigration and the

result of this study found that Korean-American women perceived their multiple

roles with positive attitude. Therefore, it is recommended that further study on the

positive point of view is required.

The two version of instruments, Korean and English was used in this

survey. Although translate English to Korean was possible, there were lots of

differences in meaning and nuance between two languages yet and this might

induce a misinterpretation of items in instrument. Therefore, it is recommended

that attention be paid to research with subjects whom exposure in two culture. In

addition, it is required that researchers who are familiar with theses two cultures

be involved in this kind of project.

Although this study compared group differences perceived on role rewards

and expected role commitment by age and length of residence, the results were

questionable because these subscales were related to chronological age and

characteristics of each age stage . To achieve more reliable research results, it is

recommended that the age of subjects be controlled before comparing differences

64

between two groups on the subscales of age difference, length of residence, and

employment status.

Finally, according to the review of literature, Korean-American women

had a high risk of depression due to stresses from being an immigrant. Although

this study found the positive aspects of role rewards and role commitment for

them, to study of this population should be further researched. Understanding

their various situations as member of the minority is very important.

65

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Appendix A

Your cooperation in this survey is extremely helpful. After reading each statement, fill in your answer. Please answer all questions to the best of your ability. All answers are confidential. Section I: General Information 1. Age:

______ 30 - 39 years ______ 50 - 59 years ______ 70 years and older ______ 40 - 49 years ______ 60 - 69 years

2. Marital Status: (check one) ______ Never married single ______ Divorced ______ Remarried

______ Married ______ Widowed 3. How many years you have been married? ______ Years 4. How many years you have been lived in the US? ______ Years 5. Who lives with you?

______ Spouse and Children ______ Children only ______ Spouse only ______ Live by self

6. Do you own parent(s) live with you? ______ Yes ______ No 7. Do you parent(s)- in-law live with you? ______ Yes ______ No 8. Current employment status: (check one)

______ Unemployed ______ Full Time (over 36hrs/week)

71

______ Part Time (up to 20hrs/week) ______ Self Employed ______ Part Time (up to 36hrs/week) ______ Business with Family

9. If you are employed, what is your occupation? _________________________________________________________ 10. How many children do you have? ______ Children 11. List Ages of Children: _______________________________________ Section II: Circle the response that best represents your feeling regarding each

statement. There is no correct answer. Your personal opinion is the best response.

(1= Strongly Disagree, 2=Disagree, 3= Undecided, 4=Agree, 5=Strongly Agree.) 1. Having work/a career that is interesting and exciting to

me is my most important life goal. 1 2 3 4 5 2. I want to work, but I do not want to have a demanding

career. 1 2 3 4 5 3. Although my parenthood requires many sacrifices, the

Love and enjoyment of children of one's own are worth it all. 1 2 3 4 5

4. It is important to me to have some time for myself and

My own development rather than have children and be responsible for their care. 1 2 3 4 5

5. My life would be empty if I never married. 1 2 3 4 5 6. I expect to commit whatever time it is necessary to

making my marriage partner feel loved, supported and cared for. 1 2 3 4 5

7. I am basically satisfied with my relationship with my husband’s parents. 1 2 3 4 5 8. I am willing to accept the duty of a daughter-in-law,

even though it requires many sacrifices. 1 2 3 4 5

72

9. Immigrating has given me a better life. 1 2 3 4 5

10. I expect to devote a significant amount of time to speaking English. 1 2 3 4 5 11. I expect my job/career to give me more real satisfaction

than anything else I do. 1 2 3 4 5 (1= Strongly Disagree, 2=Disagree, 3= Undecided, 4=Agree, 5=Strongly Agree.) 12. I expect to make as many sacrifices as are necessary in

order to advance in my work/career. 1 2 3 4 5 13. If I chose not to have children, I would regret it. 1 2 3 4 5 14. I expect to devote a significant amount of my time and

energy to the rearing of children of my own. 1 2 3 4 5 15. Having a successful marriage is the most important thing

in my life. 1 2 3 4 5 16. I do not expect to devote a significant amount of my time

to being with or doing thing with a marriage partner. 1 2 3 4 5 17. I enjoy having a close relationship with my parents-in-law. 1 2 3 4 5 18. I expect to make as many sacrifices as are necessary to

maintain and improve my in-law relationship. 1 2 3 4 5 19. Living in the United States has helped me to improve my

status personally and socially. 1 2 3 4 5 20. I want to enjoy the Korean culture even though I live in

the United States. 1 2 3 4 5 21. Building a name and reputation for myself through work/

a career is not one of my life goals. 1 2 3 4 5 21. I value being involved in a career and expect to devote

73

the time and effort needed to develop it. 1 2 3 4 5 23. It is important to me to feel I am (will be) an effective

parent. 1 2 3 4 5 24. I expect to be very involved in the day-to-day matters of

rearing children of my own. 1 2 3 4 5 25. I expect marriage to give me more personal satisfaction

than anything else in which I am involved. 1 2 3 4 5 (1= Strongly Disagree, 2=Disagree, 3= Undecided, 4=Agree, 5=Strongly Agree.) 26. I expect to put a lot of time and effort into building and

maintaining a marital relationship. 1 2 3 4 5 27. It is important me to respect and take care of my in-laws. 1 2 3 4 5 28. I am not committed to any in-law relationship. 1 2 3 4 5 29. Although I may have some language limitations, overall I

have more opportunities in the United States than Korea. 1 2 3 4 5 30. I expect to devote my time to be involved in American

community activities. 1 2 3 4 5 31. It is important to me that I have a job/a career in which

I can achieve something of importance. 1 2 3 4 5 32. I expect to devote a significant amount of my time to

building my career and developing the skills necessary to advance in my career. 1 2 3 4 5

33. I do not find the whole idea of having children and raising

them attractive. 1 2 3 4 5 34. Becoming involved in the day-to-day details of rearing

children involves costs in other areas of my life which I am unwilling to make. 1 2 3 4 5

35. Being married to a person that I love is more important

to me than anything else. 1 2 3 4 5

74

36. Really involving myself in a marriage relationship involves

costs in other areas of my life which I am unwilling to accept. 1 2 3 4 5

37. I feel stress due to my relationship with my in-laws. 1 2 3 4 5 38. I expect to devote time and effort to on my in-law's

family rituals and activities as a daughter-in-law. 1 2 3 4 5 (1= Strongly Disagree, 2=Disagree, 3= Undecided, 4=Agree, 5=Strongly Agree.) 39. I enjoy the diversity of the American culture. 1 2 3 4 5 40. I am willing to keep on open mind and accept American

culture. 1 2 3 4 5 41. It is important to me to feel successful in my work/

career. 1 2 3 4 5 42. I expect to devote whatever time and energy it takes to

move up In my job/career field. 1 2 3 4 5 43. My whole life would be empty if I never had children. 1 2 3 4 5 44. I do not expect to become very involved in childrearing. 1 2 3 4 5 45. I expect the major satisfaction in my life to come from

my marriage relationship. 1 2 3 4 5 46. I expect to work hard to build a good marriage relationship

even if it means limiting my opportunities to pursue other personal goals. 1 2 3 4 5

47. If I was not involved in a relationship with my in-laws,

I would be happier than now. 1 2 3 4 5 48. Taking responsibility for my own family is more important

than getting involved with my in-laws. 1 2 3 4 5

49. I have experienced discrimination or unfairness as an

75

immigrant. 1 2 3 4 5 50. I do not want to devote my time and effort adjusting to

American culture. 1 2 3 4 5

the multiple role expectations and commitmentsas an employee, mother, wife, daughter-in-law, and...

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